Latest Newshttp://www.ccp.edu/news/feed/%2A?field_news_release_type_tid=News%2C%20Featured%20News%20Article%2C%20In%20the%20Media%2C%20Student%20Story%2C%20Transcripts
enHelp Wanted: Thousands Answer the Call to Work http://www.ccp.edu/about-us/news/news/help-wanted-thousands-answer-call-work
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Thursday, December 8, 2016 - 3:49pm </div>
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<p>On the same day the Department of Labor announced the November unemployment rate fell to 4.6 percent, the lowest level in nine years, a winding line of job-seekers snaked around Spring Garden Street and down 17th Street on the Main Campus.</p>
<p>One of the hopeful was Wakeler Tongor, a married father of two, including a newborn, who has been looking for a family-sustaining job since graduating from Temple in 2009. He currently works two part-time jobs, for a pharmaceutical company and for an assisted living facility, but both jobs combined don’t pay him enough to support his growing family. He hoped to find salaried, full-time employment, preferably a supervisory job in social services.</p>
<p>Like hundreds of others, he marveled over the overwhelming turnout as the City of Philadelphia hosted a jobs fair seeking applicants for 30 job areas ranging from police officers to firemen to city planners to sanitation workers and lawyers.</p>
<p>“This just goes to show how badly people need work,” Tongor said. “Even if people are working, they aren’t making as much as they would want to make.”</p>
<p>The City Government Career Fair came to Community College of Philadelphia Friday, December 2nd. The fair provided informational sessions with more than 30 participating city departments, including the Philadelphia Police Department, the Department of Human Services and the Free Library of Philadelphia. More than 2,000 applicants attended, including 1,000 current and former Community College of Philadelphia students. They learned about various jobs openings and in some cases, applied for them. Staff from the College’s Keystone Education Yields Success (KEYS) program helped out by registering people in line, and handing out college career literature to those who aspired to higher-paying jobs.</p>
<p>“I just want a job with benefits,” said Mike Scott, an unemployed locksmith, who stood in line with his live-in girlfriend Kristen Sanders, who added, “It’s hard when there’s only one person working in a household.”</p>
<p>The fair was scheduled to run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., but because of the enormous numbers of applicants, members of the KEYS staff cut the line off at about 1 p.m., allowing those already assembled time to go through the process. But those left out did not leave empty-handed, as College staffers provided them with information about employment, upcoming job fairs and more.</p>
<p>Many jobseekers had never been on the campus before, so it gave staff a captive audience, and an opportunity to discuss a range of job training and degree options. “We’re letting them know they can come to the College and get a degree,” said Kimberly Daniel, project director of KEYS, who was speaking with job seekers and conducting interviews as they left. “Or, if they have a degree, they can come back and get more training. We can be a resource for them.”</p>
<p>“I’m not surprised so many people came out,” she added. “I don’t care what anybody says, people want to work.”</p>
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Thu, 08 Dec 2016 20:49:02 +0000jtripke2453 at http://www.ccp.eduAsian American Film Festival Takes Its Offerings to Community College of Philadelphia http://www.ccp.edu/about-us/news/news/asian-american-film-festival-takes-its-offerings-community-college-philadelphia
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Thursday, December 8, 2016 - 3:35pm </div>
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<p>The Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival (PAAFF) this year expanded its venues to include the Main Campus of Community College of Philadelphia, where the diverse community fosters a variety of learning experiences.<br /><br />The Festival, now the largest Asian American festival on the East Coast, exposes the region to films by and about Asian Americans through an abundance of film screenings and events. The other venues were the International House in University City, and the Asian Art initiative in Chinatown.<br /><br />“Hosting PAAFF events at the College was important because it offered an opportunity to educate people about Asian American people and cultures,” said Michelle Myers, associate professor of English and a conference organizer. “There is a misperception that all Asian people and cultures are the same, which is terribly inaccurate and serves to erase the true diversity of the Asian American/Pacific Islander community. By presenting more accurate portrayals of the AAPI community’s diversity, we can challenge such views and, hopefully, correct stereotypes that people have held.”<br /><br />Whether it is fostering an appreciation for the world through its Center for International Understanding or study abroad programs, the College’s international programs and activities allow students to sharpen their critical thinking and analytical skills; and prepare them to embrace a global view. Over the years, student and faculty groups have traveled to countries as extraordinary as Tanzania, Turkey, Japan, and, beginning in 2017, Cuba.<br /><br />In addition, PAAFF held its first-ever academic mini-conference this year at the College, exploring topics as varied as media representations of Asian American identity; Asian American food, and its function socially, culturally and politically; and representations of culture, gender, and politics in Iranian film.<br /><br />Serving as a host venue for PAAFF was a natural fit for the College. For the past 32 years, it has celebrated world cultures with the International Festival, a weeks’ worth of multinational dancing, music, workshops and cuisine; all designed to highlight and pay homage to the many cultures of the world.<br /><br />Through the film festival, the learning continued. A recent screening of the PBS documentary, “In Football We Trust,” which chronicled the emergence of Samoan-American high school football players in a small town in Utah, enlightened members of the College community about culture and customs of Asians and Pacific Islanders that were different from their own.<br /><br />Azari Jacquan, a Liberal Arts major at the College, said he left the screening with a new appreciation of a culture he knew little about, and the knowledge will be useful to him in the<br /><br />future: “I’m interested in interpersonal communications. To be able to communicate with people, you have to be educated about their culture,” he said.<br /><br />Meyers said providing a platform for events such as the film festival positions the College as a place where world views are formed and take hold. “We want to spotlight Community College of Philadelphia as a college where exciting academic work and conversations are taking place,” she said. “Hosting this academic mini-conference was an opportunity to convey the College’s positivity in this way.”</p>
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Thu, 08 Dec 2016 20:35:26 +0000jtripke2452 at http://www.ccp.eduThe Next Big Thing in Philadelphia? Your Neighborhood Business http://www.ccp.edu/about-us/news/news/next-big-thing-philadelphia-your-neighborhood-business
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Wednesday, December 7, 2016 - 2:08pm </div>
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<p><img src="/sites/default/files/News_photos/16%20Power%20Up%20Business_057_BA.jpg" alt="Council members join Mayor Jim Kenney (left) business owner Monica Parrilla (center), Community College of Philadelphia President Donald Guy Generals, (2nd left) and city Commerce Director Harold Epps (far right) to announce the launch of Power Up Your Business." style="float: right;" class="caption" width="400" height="266" /></p>
<p>Monica Parrilla, owner of Marz Auto Center in Hunting Park, loves her job but sometimes the challenges can be difficult to bear.</p>
<p>Her four employees and their families rely on her and her auto repair business for their livelihood. She is working for her customers, and for them.</p>
<p>On Monday, Parrilla, clad in a Dale Earnhardt pullover shirt, breathed easier. Power Up Your Business, a new initiative funded by City Council and created by Community College of Philadelphia, aims to help her company grow, and the neighborhood along with it.</p>
<p>“There are workshops and grants for businesses with large revenue streams but small businesses like mine are excluded because we don’t meet the benchmark,” said Parrilla, who will serve as a member of the Power Up advisory board. “Small businesses have the power to keep the local economy moving, provide jobs in our area and to increase our revenue.”</p>
<p>From Hunting Park to Wynnefield, from Logan to South Philly, small businesses — the barbershops, the bodegas, the laundromats — throughout the city’s 265 neighborhood commercial corridors are the economic drivers of the city. Yet, those businesses are oftentimes overlooked in economic development conversations.</p>
<p>Power Up will help kick-start the conversation, block by block, and introduce the city to a group of unsung heroes — the men and women whose businesses keep neighborhoods and communities strong and who serve as job creators.</p>
<p>Starting Jan. 11, the College will offer workshops that cover the small business financial management, personal and business credit and neighborhood-based marketing. The workshops will be held at the College's Main Campus and three Regional Centers, starting with the Northwest Regional Center.</p>
<p>It will also offer 10-week training programs for up to 25 businesses at a time for a total of 100 businesses in one year. The College will match the participants with a business coach and introduce them to small business resources.</p>
<p>“At the end of the day, stronger local businesses mean more jobs and better neighborhoods for all Philadelphians, and I think we all can get behind that,” said Mayor Jim Kenney, who has advocated for opportunity for every resident of Philadelphia. “When neighborhood businesses are strong, neighborhoods are safer, home values go up, more people are working, there’s more of a community feel in the neighborhood.”</p>
<p>City Council hatched the idea and created funding for Power Up Your Business in response to the sweetened beverage tax imposed on small business owners earlier this year. “To me, consumption was driving the argument. Not enough was about ownership,” said Councilwoman Cherelle Parker, who shepherded the $800,000 program through the budget process. “With that in mind, we were able to come together about the development of the program.”</p>
<p>Standing alongside Mayor Kenney, Councilwoman Parker, and Community College of Philadelphia President Donald Guy Generals were: Council President Darrell Clarke, and Council members Curtis Jones, Jr., Maria Quiñones-Sánchez, Derek Green, William Greenlee, Mark Squilla, Allan Domb, Al Taubenberger and David Oh. Clarke lauded Community College of Philadelphia as the “go-to” College “we go to when we want to come up with some very specific programs.”</p>
<p>“The College has one simple goal,” Dr. Generals said, “make every neighborhood the best it can be, by helping every business prosper.”</p>
<p>PIDC, City Commerce Department, PACDC, Enterprise Center, the African American Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, and the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce are among the College’s community partners as Power Up prepares for a January rollout.</p>
<p>“It’s a neighborhood-centric approach to economic inclusion and change,” said Carol de Fries, the College’s vice president of Workforce and Economic Innovation.</p>
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Wed, 07 Dec 2016 19:08:53 +0000jtripke2451 at http://www.ccp.eduVeterans Day marked with ceremony, job fair at CCPhttp://www.ccp.edu/about-us/news/media/veterans-day-marked-ceremony-job-fair-ccp
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Wednesday, December 7, 2016 - 11:23am </div>
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<p>In honor of Veteran’s Day, Community College of Philadelphia will honor and recognize heroes by hosting a ceremony and job fair to connect those who have served in the military.</p>
<p>Since the 9-11 tragedy, one out of every two veterans will face joblessness upon transitioning from the military back into the workforce, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ 2015 Veteran Economic Opportunity Report. The study also found that the average time for being on unemployment was approximately 22 weeks in 2013.</p>
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<a href="http://www.phillytrib.com/news/veterans-day-marked-with-ceremony-job-fair-at-ccp/article_145cf5ec-a24d-5cb8-b242-d3c63d346b1b.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Philadelphia Tribune</a> </div>
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 16:23:08 +0000jtripke2449 at http://www.ccp.eduCollege Kicks Smoking On Campus To The Curbhttp://www.ccp.edu/about-us/news/media/college-kicks-smoking-campus-curb
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Wednesday, December 7, 2016 - 11:21am </div>
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<p>The Community <span class="vm-hook-outer vm-hook-default"><span class="vm-hook" style="color: #009900; border-color: transparent transparent #009900;">College</span></span> of Philadelphia is going smoke free on January 1.</p>
<p>“Previously you had to move 25 feet away from any entrance, exit or ramp. But now in order to avoid the confusion of what 25 feet is, we decided to make the whole campus smoke-free."</p>
<p>Dr. Kristy Shuda-McGuire with CCP says not only will this move help improve the <span class="vm-hook-outer vm-hook-default"><span class="vm-hook" style="color: #009900; border-color: transparent transparent #009900;">health</span></span> of smokers and non-smokers, but it may help some of the students kick the habit as they enter the working world.</p>
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<a href="http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2016/11/17/college-kicks-smoking-on-campus-to-the-curb/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">CBS Philadelphia</a> </div>
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 16:21:22 +0000jtripke2448 at http://www.ccp.eduHBCU fair draws hundreds of potential recruitsMarch raises awareness about human traffickinghttp://www.ccp.edu/about-us/news/media/hbcu-fair-draws-hundreds-potential-recruitsmarch-raises-awareness-about-human-trafficking
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Wednesday, December 7, 2016 - 11:18am </div>
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<p>The Community College of Philadelphia raised awareness on human trafficking with an event held last week.</p>
<p>The college along with participants from the Red Sand and other projects poured red sand into the cracks of the sidewalks as they walked from Spring Garden Street to City Hall. The sand served as a reminder that people should not pass by or walk over those who are being exploited.</p>
<p>“We hope to make this an annual event,” said Kathleen Smith, the director of Fox Rothschild Center for Law and Society. “Human trafficking affects so many, yet most of us think of it as rare and somehow far away from us and our communities. In offering a day focused on the many facets of human trafficking, we hope to give voice to the voiceless of the many who have been trafficked and bring their faces into focus.”</p>
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<a href="http://www.phillytrib.com/news/hbcu-fair-draws-hundreds-of-potential-recruits/article_dca54f87-baee-566d-83c7-9370e612a02c.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Philadelphia Tribune</a> </div>
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 16:18:59 +0000jtripke2447 at http://www.ccp.eduCollegiate Consortium for Workforce & Economic Development utilizing $385,314 grant http://www.ccp.edu/about-us/news/media/collegiate-consortium-workforce-economic-development-utilizing-385314-grant
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Wednesday, December 7, 2016 - 11:15am </div>
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<p>“The Collegiate Consortium for Workforce and Economic Development is the perfect vehicle for offering the kind of job-specific, skills training necessary for the region’s ports to capitalize on what promises to be a bright future,” said Jerry Parker, Collegiate Consortium chair and Delaware County Community College president.</p>
<p>Established in 1994 as a partnership between Drexel University and five area community colleges, the Consortium includes Community College of Philadelphia, Delaware County Community College, Bucks County Community College, Camden County College and Montgomery County Community College.</p>
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<a href="http://www.phillytrib.com/collegiate-consortium-for-workforce-economic-development-utilizing-grant/article_9545cd39-8c44-5dd4-8933-d8aaeace989e.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Philadelphia Tribune</a> </div>
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 16:15:51 +0000jtripke2446 at http://www.ccp.eduCity partners with community college to provide small-business traininghttp://www.ccp.edu/about-us/news/media/city-partners-community-college-provide-small-business-training
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Wednesday, December 7, 2016 - 11:14am </div>
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<p>Community College of Philadelphia will offer free workshops to small local businesses next year in the hope of strengthening the city's commercial corridors.</p>
<p>The city is providing $800,000 for a year's worth of Power Up Your Business workshops and classes, with a three-year renewal option.</p>
<p>"One of our major goals is to ensure that our city is a growing business center, and that is dependent on the success of businesses of all sizes in all neighborhoods," Mayor Kenney said. "We have seen great growth in Center City and the surrounding areas, and we want all of our neighborhoods to experience that opportunity."</p>
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Wed, 07 Dec 2016 16:14:03 +0000jtripke2445 at http://www.ccp.eduA Blank Check, Paid With Sacrifice and Servicehttp://www.ccp.edu/about-us/news/news/blank-check-paid-sacrifice-and-service
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Thursday, November 17, 2016 - 4:38pm </div>
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<p><img src="/sites/default/files/News_photos/Will%20Baas%20%20Veteran%27s%20Day%20Reception_069_BA.jpg" alt="William A. Baas, vice president of Talent, Comcast Northeast Region, and a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve, spoke of members of the military who make the ultimate sacrifice. " title="William A. Baas, vice president of Talent, Comcast Northeast Region, and a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve, spoke of members of the military who make the ultimate sacrifice. " style="float: right;" class="caption" width="400" height="266" /></p>
<p>Veterans Day at Community College of Philadelphia was a time to remember heroes, a number of whom are sitting in the classrooms, and juggling kids and books.</p>
<p>About 75 students, faculty and staff gathered in the Allen T. Bonnell Building lobby for a solemn ceremony on Veterans Day that recalled fallen comrades and sacred duty. College President Donald Guy Generals praised all servicemen and women as protectors of freedom.</p>
<p> “What is your definition of a veteran?” William A. Baas, vice president of Talent, Comcast Northeast Region and currently a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve. “Mine is simple. A veteran is that man or woman who raises his or her hand, swears an oath to the Constitution of the United States, and writes a blank check to the United States government for an untold amount, up to and including his or her life. Some cash it in and they get away pretty easily. For others, the amount they have paid is incalculable.”</p>
<p>Baas was joined during the ceremony by Angel Arocho, senior director of operations compliance at Comcast and a former U.S. Marine Corps sergeant who shared his personal journey of educational achievement; and Frederick Soejanto, a 2012 graduate of the College who serves as a medical logistics officer and, and who was recently promoted to Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Stephen Bachovin, coordinator of Veterans /Military Programming at the Veterans Resource Center, served as emcee.</p>
<p>During the ceremony, the College unveiled a new scholarship for veterans established by Drizin-Weiss Post 215 Jewish War Veterans. The $1,000 scholarship will be awarded to a student veteran this spring.</p>
<p>After the ceremony, guests feasted on cake and then some of the veterans attended a post-ceremony lunch and a Comcast jobs fair on campus. Servicemen and women often have a hard time finding a job once they come out of the military. Approximately one out of every two post 9/11 veterans will face a period of unemployment while transitioning into the workforce.</p>
<p>So the Veterans Resource Center and workforce development staff teamed up with Comcast Corp. on a jobs fair designed to create an employment path.</p>
<p>The fair concluded a day full of Veterans Day events.</p>
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Thu, 17 Nov 2016 21:38:22 +0000jtripke2434 at http://www.ccp.eduLangston Hughes and Jazz: A Black History Primer http://www.ccp.edu/about-us/news/featured-news-article/langston-hughes-and-jazz-black-history-primer
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Monday, November 7, 2016 - 12:00pm </div>
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<p><img src="/sites/default/files/News_photos/ron%20mccurdy1.jpg" alt="Dr. Ron McCurdy, a jazz musician and professor of music at the University of Southern California, pays tribute to the works of poet Langston Hughes in a multi-media performance." title="Dr. Ron McCurdy, a jazz musician and professor of music at the University of Southern California, pays tribute to the works of poet Langston Hughes in a multi-media performance." style="float: right;" class="caption" width="300" height="400" /></p>
<p>The jazz riffs of Ron McCurdy’s sweet trumpet wafted out of the Bonnell Auditorium, piquing the curiosity of passersby. Inside, a sepia image of literary giant Langston Hughes, superimposed on a big screen behind the musicians, provided a fitting backdrop for telling the story of one writer’s struggle for artistic and social freedom.<br /><br />On Oct. 27, Community College of Philadelphia students watched and listened to a special multimedia concert performance of Langston Hughes’ 12-part, epic poem, “Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz,” performed Dr. Ronald C. McCurdy, a professor of music at the University of Southern California, who, along with his trio of musicians, traveled from Los Angeles to educate and entertain the College community about jazz, poetry and justice.<br /><br />Student Life organized and hosted the concert to recognize and celebrate the diversity in all cultures.<br /><br />“It is important to remember that our students are not only Latino during Latina/o History Month, gay during LGBT History Month, Black during Black History Month, etc. They are these things all the time,” said David Greene, Director of Student Life. “The mission of Student Life is to help students gain a better understanding of themselves and their communities. The Langston Hughes project allows us to achieve that mission.”<br /><br />Most students kept their hands in their laps when McCurdy asked them to raise their hands if they had ever heard of Hughes - all the more important to learn about a man who was arguably the most important African American poet of the 20th century; a leader of the Harlem Renaissance; a social activist and one of the earliest innovators of the literary art form known as jazz poetry.<br /><br />With the help of video montages, the concert performance linked the words and music of Hughes' poetry to topical images of people, places, and events, and to the works of the visual artists Langston Hughes admired. Together the words, sounds, and images recreated moments in African American history, which bridged the Harlem Renaissance and the post- World War II Beat writers' coffeehouse jazz poetry world to the looming Black Arts performance explosion of the 1960s.<br /><br />Perhaps no one on campus understands music’s connection to learning better than Dr. Donald Guy Generals, the College’s president. Dr. Generals, himself a jazz musician, has played the drums at College events and believes that the arts enrich learning and inspire creativity.<br /><br />Artists such as Hughes, he noted, evoke questions, provide answers and heighten curiosity that is crucial to student success.<br /><br />“I think the way that you learn, how you learn, and the company that you keep while you learn, are important,” Dr. Generals said in an interview conducted earlier this year. “The environment in which you learn enables you to be innovative because you are around different points of view. Innovation can manifest itself through many ways, through many media and in many formats. To the extent that we foster curricula that encourages creative thinking, I think that adds to the overall direction and soul of the city.”<br /><br />Hughes originally created “Ask Your Mama” after Newport Jazz Festival of July 1960. The musical scoring of the poem was designed to forge a conversation and a commentary with the music. It remained only in the planning stages when Hughes died in 1967. McCurdy’s discovery of it, and subsequent performance, provides an illuminating learning experience for all who experience it.</p>
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Mon, 07 Nov 2016 17:00:35 +0000jtripke2422 at http://www.ccp.edu